Rose Petals
by Ellipsis the Great
Summary: Inside every person is a little kid plucking petals off a flower and wondering if the person they like likes them back…Seiner. Commission fic.


**_Rose Petals_**

_A One-shot by Ellipsis the Great_

_**Summary: **__Inside every person is a little kid plucking petals off a flower and wondering if the person they like likes them back…Seiner. Commission fic._

_**DISCLAIMER:**__ Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…_

_**Rated: **T just in case**  
**_

_**Dedication:**__ To FinalFallenFantasy, who won this commission a LONG time ago! Sorry it took me so long!_

_**Theme:**__ Roses_

Deep in his heart of hearts is a flower—a rose. It grows slowly for the first few years of his life, nourished by the familial love of his parents and family and the one or two friends he makes in preschool.

In Kindergarten, he meets a boy names Seifer Almasy who pushes him down in the sandbox and laughs when he cries over the scrapes on his hands.

A rose bud appears, and quickly blooms.

A petal falls—white and withered.

_(He hates me…)_

Eleven years later, Seifer decides (for some reason known only to the obstinate teen himself) that they will be friends. He thinks Sora's brief visit might have something to do with Seifer's sudden change of heart, but he isn't sure.

Surprisingly, they get along quite well in spite of their history. Actually, their history might have something to do with why the transition is so effortless. Their snippy fights turn into teasing arguments; bitter rivalry turns into friendly competitiveness.

Their friendship is rocky, to say the least. Sometimes, their teasing gets a little too serious. Their competitions get a little too intense.

But they somehow manage to get past it all. A fight ensues, and then a few minutes later all is well between them again. Bruised and battered, certainly, but well enough.

And after a while he isn't sure why they never thought of this before, because suddenly life seems a lot easier and more lively. Olette and Fuu are no longer the only girls in their respective groups—Fuu starts talking a little more, and Olette talks a little less. Pence tutors Rai, and Rai teaches Pence how to defend himself. He and Seifer play off of each other with an ease that shocks just about everyone who sees them, themselves included.

The Disciplinary Committee doesn't go away, nor does it gain new members, per se. His gang and Seifer's are working together, now, in a strange sort of behind-the-scenes way, but they haven't merged together. He alerts Seifer of any rabble-rousers he, Olette, or Pence notice. Seifer lets them get away with more than they probably should, and tells them if something strange pops up that they should watch for.

Give and take, take and give.

A petal falls—yellow.

_(He hates me not…)_

An up-and-rising gang has noticed his connection to Seifer about four years later. It's not like either of them was hiding anything, but evidently Twilight's (admittedly few and small) gangs are too stupid to have noticed before this.

They catch him on his way home from the shop, where he has just left his trashed skateboard (he was trying to learn a new trick and…well, failed pretty miserably at it. The trash can didn't make it out unscathed, either). There is no speaking. No threatening. Just a loud shout that gets his attention, followed by a punch that knocks the wind out of him, and a flurry of feet and fists that leaves him bloody and unconscious.

When he wakes up, he is in the hospital. Olette fusses over him more than his mother probably would have were she alive, and Pence jabbers on about this and that.

Seifer brings him a newspaper article entailing the arrest of an entire local gang, made possible by the town's very own Disciplinary committee.

He smiles.

A petal falls—pink.

_(He likes me…)_

He isn't sure what they are fighting about, but suddenly he is flying back a few feet, a shiny new bruise appearing on his cheek. He stands and spits—there is blood mixed in with the spittle—and the words that come out of his mouth are scathing enough to make Seifer stop and stare at him. He wonders vaguely what the words were (his head is too fuzzy for him to be sure), but in the next moment Seifer has let out an inhuman roar, throwing himself at Hayner, who is so surprised he lets himself fall to the ground.

They fight some more, until ("Do you want to kiss me as much as I want to kiss you?" Seifer demands, snarling the words) they are suddenly kissing instead of fighting. Seifer bites his lip, which bleeds, and his fingers tangle in the taller blonde's hair, tugging out a few tufts.

And then, just as abruptly, Seifer has shoved him away with a curse, and storms off without another word.

They avoid each other.

A petal falls—maiden's blush.

_(He likes me not…)_

When they run into each other next—completely on accident and without the intervention of Fuu and Olette, of course—they are quiet and awkward. Then they both try to talk at once, which for some reason doesn't work at all. As a matter of fact, it works so poorly that they start arguing again. But as it turns out, they're only arguing so they'll have an excuse to start kissing again. It is, therefore, a predictably short and meaningless argument; one that neither will remember the next day.

Instead, they will remember more kisses that travel from mouths to necks to chests to even lower than chests and back up again. He considers stopping it for a short moment. Things are moving too fast—no, actually, they're moving way too slow, he realizes, because they have definitely been working up to this moment since they met in Kindergarten.

So he doesn't stop it; he intensifies it by somehow dragging Seifer to his apartment and finding that tube of lube he keeps stowed in his bedside table and—

Another petal falls—white and red.

_(He loves me…)_

—All too soon it's over. Only it's not over, it's just begun. And it's wonderful and good; the best thing that's ever happened to him, even.

But you know what they say about good things.

They fight. Do they ever fight. And this fight doesn't end in kisses and sex like the previous one—it is messy and it is cruel and it is even a little bit bloody, and _God_ he is positive their fights have never shaken him so much before this. Have never caused so much emotional pain that he is physically ill. Have never reached into his chest and wrapped around his heart and sliced it into pieces like a wire through clay. Have never made him cry himself to sleep.

A petal falls—dog rose.

The flower dies.

_(He loves me n—)_

He sniffles and looks at Seifer, who looks uncharacteristically awkward in the doorway, shuffling his feet and scratching the back of his neck.

"Sorry." Seifer mutters.

"Me, too." His voice is hoarse.

They stand there for a tense moment, and then Seifer steps forward and wraps his arms around him. He hears a stifled cry, and Seifer's hands clench in the fabric of his shirt as tears soak into his collar.

"Shit, don't cry." He says as his eyes fill with tears. "You'll make…me cry…too…"

"I love you. I'm sorry. I love you. I'm so sorry."

"I love you, too, you big idiot." He sobs.

"We're so stupid."

"Yeah." They are smiling through their tears, now.

A rosebud forms—red.

_(He really, really loves me.)_

A hand reaches into his heart and scoops up the fallen petals.

"These are mine, now."

"They were always yours."

The End.

_Rose color meanings:_

_White (withered): transient impressions_

_Yellow: forgive and forget_

_Pink: friendship, happiness_

_Maiden's blush: if you love me, you will find it out_

_White and red: unity_

_Dog rose: pleasure and pain_

_Red rosebud: love, purity_

_A/N: OMG, it's really been three months since my last Seiner. DDD8_

_Somehow got this random idea for a story while on the plane back from Okinawa (I went there for Gold Week, a week of holidays in Japan) and wrote it out as soon as I got home. ALSO, I have owed FinalFallenFantasy this story since, like, December or something. I'm so terribly late! And there are still other commissions that I owe people! DDX I fail so hard, sheesh._

_Um, so…it's pretty short…and tangential like wow…but I hope FinalFallenFantasy likes it anyhow! Hope everyone else enjoyed it, as well!_

_Love you guys! See ya next!_

_-EtheG_


End file.
